Classic and Contemporary Poetry
SCHOOL, by PERCY MACKAYE Poet's Biography First Line: Old hezekiah leaned hard on his hoe Last Line: "he said: ""to hoe." Alternate Author Name(s): Mackaye, Percy Wallace Subject(s): Farm Life; Meriden Academy, New Hampshire; Agriculture; Farmers | ||||||||
I Old Hezekiah leaned hard on his hoe And squinted long at Eben, his lank son. The silence shrilled with crickets. Day was done, And, row on dusky row, Tall bean poles ribbed with dark the gold-bright afterglow. Eben stood staring: ever, one by one, The tendril tops turned ashen as they flared. Still Eben stared. O, there is wonder on New Hampshire hills, Hoeing the warm, bright furrows of brown earth, And there is grandeur in the stone wall's birth, And in the sweat that spills From rugged toil its sweetness; yet for wild young wills There is no dew of wonder, but stark dearth, In one old man who hoes his long bean rows, And only hoes. Old Hezekiah turned slow on his heel. He touched his son. Thro' all the carking day There are so many littlish cares to weigh Large natures down, and steel The heart of understanding. "Son, how is't ye feel? What are ye starin' on -- a gal?" A ray Flushed Eben from the fading afterglow: He dropped his hoe. He dropped his hoe, but sudden stooped again And raised it where it fell. Nothing he spoke, But bent his knee and -- crack! the handle broke, Splintering. With glare of pain, He flung the pieces down, and stamped upon them; then -- Like one who leaps out naked from his cloak -- Ran. "Here, come back! Where are ye bound -- you fool?" He cried -- "To school!" II Now on the mountain morning laughed with light -- With light and all the future in her face, For there she looked on many a far-off place And wild adventurous sight, For which the mad young autumn wind hallooed with might And dared the roaring mill-brook to the race, Where blue-jays screamed beyond the pine-dark pool -- "To school! -- To school!" Blackcoated, Eben took the barefoot trail, Holding with wary hand his Sunday boots; Harsh catbirds mocked his whistling with their hoots; Under his swallowtail Against his hip-strap bumping, clinked his dinner pail; Frost maples flamed, lone thrushes touched their lutes; Gray squirrels bobbed, with tails stiff curved to backs, To eye his tracks. Soon at the lonely crossroads he passed by The little one-room schoolhouse. He peered in. There stood the bench where he had often been Admonished flagrantly To drone his numbers: now to this he said good-bye For mightier lure of more romantic scene: Good-bye to childish rule and homely chore Forevermore! All day he hastened like the flying cloud Breathless above him, big with dreams, yet dumb. With tightened jaw he chewed the tart spruce gum, And muttered half aloud Huge oracles. At last, where thro' the pine-tops bowed The sun, it rose! -- His heart beat like a drum. There, there it rose -- his tower of prophecy: The Academy! III They learn to live who learn to contemplate, For contemplation is the unconfined God who creates us. To the growing mind Freedom to think is fate, And all that age and after-knowledge augurate Lies in a little dream of youth enshrined: That dream to nourish with the skilful rule Of love -- is school. Eben, in mystic tumult of his teens, Stood bursting -- like a ripe seed -- into soul. All his life long he had watched the great hills roll Their shadows, tints and sheens By sun- and moonrise; yet the bane of hoeing beans, And round of joyless chores, his father's toll, Blotted their beauty; nature was as naught: He had never thought. But now he climbed his boyhood's castle tower And knocked. Ah, well then for his after-fate That one of nature's masters opened the gate, Where like an April shower Live influence quickened all his earth-blind seed to power. Strangely his sense of truth grew passionate, And like a young bull, led in yoke to drink, He bowed to think. There also bowed their heads with him to quaff -- The snorting herd! And many a wholesome grip He had of rivalry and fellowship. Often the game was rough, But Eben tossed his horns and never balked the cuff; For still through play and task his Dream would slip -- A radiant Herdsman, guiding destiny To his degree. IV Once more old Hezekiah stayed his hoe To squint at Eben. Silent, Eben scanned A little roll of sheepskin in his hand, While, row on dusky row, Tall bean poles ribbed with dark the gold-pale afterglow. The boy looked up: here was another land! Mountain and farm with mystic beauty flared Where Eben stared. Stooping, he lifted with a furtive smile Two splintered sticks, and spliced them. Nevermore His spirit would go beastwise to his chore Blinded, for even while He stooped to the old task, sudden in the sunset's pile His radiant Herdsman swung a fiery door, Thro' which came forth with far-borne trumpetings Poets and kings, His fellow conquerors: there Virgil dreamed, There Caesar fought and won the barbarous tribes, There Darwin, pensive, bore the ignorant gibes, And One with thorns redeemed From malice the wild hearts of men: there surged and streamed With chemic fire the forges of old scribes Testing anew the crucibles of toil To save God's soil. So Eben turned again to hoe his beans, But now, to ballads which his Herdsman sung, Henceforth he hoed the dream in with the dung, And for his ancient spleens Planting new joys, imagination found him means. At last old Hezekiah loosed his tongue: "Well, boy, this school -- what has it learned ye to know?" He said: "To hoe." | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...KICKING THE LEAVES by DONALD HALL THE FARMER'S BOY: WINTER by ROBERT BLOOMFIELD THE FARMER'S BOY: SPRING by ROBERT BLOOMFIELD THE FARMER'S BOY: SUMMER by ROBERT BLOOMFIELD THE FARMER'S BOY: AUTUMN by ROBERT BLOOMFIELD A CHILD AT THE WICKET by PERCY MACKAYE |
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